Star Trek Online Season 3 to launch today.

There were concerns that it might be delayed, but the Star Trek Online servers will be coming down today (December 9th, 2010) from 10 am GMT to Midday GMT for the much anticipated Season 3.

This is a major update, with a lot of features that players have been waiting for. I’ve included the patch notes under this brief post, but I’m particularly looking forward to the newly expanded crafting. From the sounds of it, the Federation will actually be able to make high level phasers at last! It’ll still probably be a pretty dull crafting system, but at least we’ll have far more reason to use it. Being able to make worthwhile gear is fun whatever the system!

Arktoth is more interested in Disruptors.

Poor Arktoth will also have a fair bit more content and opportunities available to him. The Klingon side of things has been a frustrating place to be til now, but with the arrival of Klingon crafting, the equipment imbalance may be over. (Though that may lead to it’s own problems. The Klingons already seem to crush the Feds whenever they meet, in my PvP experience on both sides thus far.).

I’m also surprisingly excited about the replay function. As well as giving us the opportunity to go back and play our favourite missions for new rewards, it gives me one more excuse to hang around in my ready room!

It doesn’t sound like any part of the Foundry made it in to this update, but work continues on it on the test server, Tribble. I’ve been hearing good things about it, so hopefully it won’t be too much more of a wait before it’s first phase comes to Live.

I’ll report back on my experiences in Season 3 later this week.

The release notes for Star Trek Online’s Season Three are below!

Sector Space Update

If you were in the STO beta a year ago, you will remember that Sector Space was constantly going through visual revisions. The version that we launched with was functional and distinct, but I’ve always felt we could do much better. The artists have gone to town and come back with a visual update that captures the beauty of traveling through the Galaxy while retaining functional elements.

You now have the option of selecting between two visual styles while traveling through the Galaxy by toggling Astrometric View on or off. When traveling with Astrometrics on, subdued map-like elements will help guide you to locations. Traveling with Astrometrics off, nearly all the UI will drop away and you’ll be in the deep dark of space with the twinkle of stars to guide you. Hovering over a major star system will bring up some basic info on that system.

When you fly close to a major star system, you will notice it get slowly larger as you approach and planets will become visible. An information panel can also be toggled on or off to display some data about the location.

See something interesting in the distance? Fly up to it and see what’s there! We think you’ll find some nice surprises out there.

Episode Replay

You now have access to replay most storyline missions you have already completed. You can replay missions for fun or maybe you want to go back and finish that accolade you missed or get a different reward this time around. So how does this work?

In order to replay a mission, you must be in Sector Space and move to your Bridge (use the little arrow drop-down in the mini-map HUD). You’ll find a computer console in your Ready Room that will display any mission you have already completed. Select the mission to replay, and complete it as normal. Note that mission enemies and rewards will remain at their original level, so if you’re a Vice Admiral going back to replay Kassae – expect to mop up the Gorn. In addition, several missions now offer unique rewards for replaying them and more of these rewards will be added in the future.

Memory Alpha Research Update (Crafting)

The Research and Development crafting system is receiving an update in Season 3 and I wanted to give some details as to what has changed and what to expect in the upcoming update. There have been a ton of great suggestions on how to improve Memory Alpha, and many ideas such as choosing your own bonuses are features that will come in time, but first we need to take another baby step and improve the usefulness of the System.

First off we’ve taken care of an obvious problem by allowing the KDF complete access to the R&D Crafting Stations and have set some up in Qo’nos for the KDF to use. In addition, we’re opening up the Pi Canis sector and adding new patrol missions to allow KDF players to gather data in a more Empire-like way. We’re also starting to turn on anomalies in systems and missions so that eventually all accessible maps have equal access to crafting resources. In addition, the FED and KDF research trees are slightly different in that the KDF has a focus on Disruptor technology while the Feds have a focus on Phasers. But that is only a minor issue compared to making R&D more useful.

Previously, Memory Alpha only allowed the crafting of a few uncommon and rare items up to Mark 10. This made crafting an interesting hobby but paled in comparison to other loot that could be found in game through other means. We also noted that there was a small arbitrary sample of available items. Most of the time as you played you ended up feeling behind the curve in that by the time you could make Mk II items, you were already using Mk IV. As part of Season 3, we are making some significant improvements to address the issues above.

In addition to adding over 400 more items, a big change you’ll notice when you log in is that General Research now has a maximum level of 1650 and contains all recipes that were previously in Energy Fields, Physical Sciences, and Tech R&D (plus the Advanced versions of the latter 3). Increasing the skill to 1650 allowed us to add in Rare and Very Rare Mark XI items.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY RESEARCH SKILLS?

Any previous experience you had gained in regular or advanced Energy Fields, Physical Science, and Tech R&D has been converted to the new General Research skill up to a maximum of 1500 points. 1500 skill in General Research will allow the crafting of any items up to Very Rare Mark 10 (which is more than what player’s could previously craft in the old system). This conversion errs on the side of being generous and most players should now be able to craft far more items than they previously could.

Now that all items use General Research, we have also re-labeled the UI so that you can Filter and Select the type of item you are trying to make. The tab filter categories are Personal Equipment, Starship Weapons, and Starship Components. They all use General Research skill.

One of the other cumbersome aspects of R&D was the need to purchase a base level item in order to craft a new one. This has been changed. Instead of having to purchase a copy of an item, you can now craft Schematics (there is a new tab for these) with basic resources which can be used as a component when fabricating any Mk level of the item. So for example, to craft a Mk IV torpedo launcher, you need a Schematic: Torpedo Launcher and the appropriate amount of data to make a Mk IV torpedo launcher. It is a subtle difference but one that allows us to do some interesting things with schematics in the future. We’ve also streamlined how many anomalies of any given type you needed to make an item. Each crafted item now uses X number of a single type of anomaly at each tier with the exception that very rare items also now require a specific Particle Trace (you get these from randomly from completing the scan mini-game). Here’s how the anomaly samples break down by crafted item tier:

To further simply, the amount of each particle needed to make any particular item has been standardized. Common quality is 10 samples, Uncommon, 20 Samples, Rare 30 Samples, and Very Rare 30 samples + a varying amount of Unique Particles.

Since this changes how many anomalies each item requires to make, there has also been a change to how much each recipe will grant in Research Skill. This too has been standardized. Making common items grants 10 skill, uncommon – 20 skill, rare – 30 skill, and very rare – 50 skill. The slower skill gains are compensated for by the fact that all recipes require schematics which will always grant 10 skill.
To help with gathering resources, we’ve also taken a closer look at what levels anomalies are given out at. We’ve adjusted each star cluster to ensure that the anomalies that are prevalent are more likely to be closer to the level of the Sector. For example B’Tran Lvl 51 will now primarily give Mk X and Mk XI sample data (whereas previously it would give as low as MK VIII)

You can also now re-size the crafting window.

We consider this update a small step towards the future of crafting in STO, but a much needed step. You can look forward to more Crafting updates in the future as we begin to dig deeper into the system and provide more exciting opportunities for those who enjoy crafting to be able to make unique and interesting items. The first of these, our special Ship Component Set is scheduled to go live shortly after the release of Season 3 – so start leveling up that Research Skill and stay tuned!

Klingon Patrols in Pi Canis

The Pi Canis Sector Block has been opened up to Klingon Defense Force characters and now contain repeatable, any level, “sortie” missions that focus on allowing the KDF to raid Federation stockpiles for research data (used in crafting). In addition a new daily – “Path of the Warrior” – can be completed by finishing the optional objectives on each of the Sorties. These missions also grant Marks and Emblems depending on your rank. For a more detailed description, you can read Gozer’s post here.

General Updates

Interacting with objects no longer is interrupted by moving the camera.

Angle of attack on many ships has increased to a 60 degree angle, up from 45 degrees allowing for more vertical maneuvering in starship flight.

Traffic controllers (The ones who contact you when crossing between sector borders) have been replaced by your Bridge Officers.

Some emotes have been turned off while in the sitting position (pushups, for example)

Tricorder scans now pick up destructible objects. Klingons rejoice!

The Area Scan range on interactive objects has been increased.

Objects in space no longer require you to get quite as close to them in order to interact.

The text for most emotes has been updated.

"Sitting in Chairs" tech has been implemented on your captain’s chair on your bridge. Simply walk up to your chair, then click the Interact option on the right side of your screen to sit.

Many improvements have been made to stability and performance.

Ships and Costumes

Fixed several graphical issues on various ship bridges.

The Status Screen and Info picture of many ships has been updated.

Klingon characters now benefit from the 200-day veteran reward! Check your local tailor for new badass shoulder pads.

Some minor clipping issues with costumes / uniforms have been fixed.

The Seven of Nine hand attachment is now available for Off-Duty uniforms.

Vice Admiral pips now show on the TNG series uniforms.

There are no longer floating shelves on Large Layout ship interiors.

Klingon badges no longer clip at certain body sizes.

Various minor adjustments have been made to the look of various ships, including the addition of logos and striping on some ships.

Thanks to player feedback, the pylons on the Discovery have been adjusted so they no longer clip. In addition, they are now at about a 20 degree angle when in the "up" position, so the ship should no longer look quite as boxy in sector space.

The Antiproton Mk. X Dual Beam Bank icon is now displaying correctly. It was previously displaying the Beam Array icon.

All non-unique Personal Shield Generators no longer bind when equipped.

Holo Emitters can now properly turn off in System space after being activated in Sector Space.

Biothermal Dampeners are now Unique.

The Enhanced Cloak on the B’rel Retrofit now properly allows certain mission objectives to progress while cloaked.

Some standard Issue gear has been made available in the Replicator.

Mark XI and XII items have had their Energy Credit value re-appraised.

Terran Empire frigates that are labeled as Centaur-class or ShiKahr-class frigates will now actually be the correct class.

Visual and Sound FX

Borg Cubes no longer show Shield FX when fired upon.

Fixed an issue causing some FX particles to incorrectly disappear.

Fixed an issue causing all beams to fire out of the front of ships after adjusting officer assignments.

Sprinting animations have been reverted to previous version for the time being while the team works on the new animations for the Season 4 ground combat update.

Missions and NPCs

A new daily mission, "Emancipation," is available from Ambassador Surah in the Orellius Sector. This mission gives you a quick hit-and-run ground mission to liberate Deferi slaves from the Breen forces at Zaria!

Mission return text has been updated for various missions turned in to Captain James Kurland and Admiral T’nae.

Aid the Planet missions now correctly randomize their rewards.

Fixed a rare case where players could no longer see First Contact mission offers. Players currently affected will be fixed up in a future build.

Prelude to a Crisis (Federation Tutorial): Contact dialogs no longer pop up if you’re on a team and your teammate interacts with a contact. A cutscene has also been added.

Bringing Down the House: The mission now explicitly instructs the player to destroy the cargo bay door. The cargo bay door now has a more noticeable explosion when it is destroyed. The dialogue has been updated to feel better on teams. Notably, dialogues do not close as soon as the first player finishes a dialogue.

By Any Means: This mission is now able to be completed on a team.

Cernan System Patrol: Anomalies can now properly be collected on the ground.

Cold Comfort: Deferi medkits no longer show the Federation computer background in their dialog boxes.

Destiny: The dialogue names have been updated.

Diplomatic Orders: The introductory dialogues no longer pop up repeatedly.

Europani System Patrol: Mission Complete dialogs no longer pop up before the mission is complete.

Everything Old is New: Your Bridge Officers properly move to your new location when you take a passage from one place to another.

Friend of My Enemy: Turbolifts now have the correct interaction text on this mission.

The Gates of Gre’thor: The damage range on the lava has been readjusted to adhere more closely to the lava’s edges. The doors have been updated to animate. A battle cry now sounds when the player joins his or her Klingon brethren in the charge against the Gates of Gre’thor! The interaction button for the doors now shows the correct text.

Hide and Seek: This mission can now be completed while on a team.

Ice Mining Fleet Action: The Klingon version of this Fleet Action now has a map and mini-map.

Infected: The "Ops" tab is now capitalized correctly.

Investigate Energy Readings: There is no longer a data node buried underground. Grounded an anomaly that was previously floating in the air.

Kalferi System Patrol: The runabout in the Kalferi System now uses the correct model. The U.S.S. Bale can now be disabled by Nausicaan raiders, and can no longer complete the mission for the player just by itself.

Keep Your Enemies Closer: Scan animations now properly play in the Gamma Okana System. Federation ships now properly reset if the player is defeated. Some loot crates have been added to Starbase 157.

Kern System Patrol: There are now waypoints for the satellites.

Kinjer System Patrol: Destroying the base before finishing downloads of probe data no longer breaks the mission.

The Kuvah’Magh: Fixed a floating building on Regulus IV.

Night of the Comet: The fight against the Devidian captain has received some tweaks. The Triolic effect will now properly remain until all Devidians in the encounter have been defeated.

Out in the Cold: Several fixes have been made to the geometry in the caves of Zaria.

Lirss System Patrol: The large asteroids in this system now properly have waypoints.

Patrol Bhea System: The system no longer allows you to re-enter unless you have the mission.

Patrol the Arawath Sector: There is no longer a data node buried underground.

Project Nightingale: There is no longer an NPC standing on a console, pretending to type in the air above it.

Rapier: The Captain’s chair no longer floats several meters in the air.

Saturday’s Child: The name of the race in this mission is now consistent.

Second Star to the Right: Fire now deals damage in the interior of the U.S.S. DeWitt.

Secret Orders: There are no longer poorly-disguised Federation consoles in this mission.

Starbase 24 Rescue: The dialogue that pops up when leaving the system no longer references an incorrect image.

Toron System Patrol: The "Ops" button now properly appears when the player can warp out.

Trick or Treat: The map-specific mission now properly instructs the player to beam up once all objectives have been completed. Waypoints have been added for the NPCs Araglo and Glaren.

Veyga System Patrol: Waypoints have been added for the trapped miners.

War is Good for Business: Commander Cleveland’s name displays correctly in dialog boxes.

What Lies Beneath: Spiders aren’t quite as loud any more.

Klingon characters now have Accolades for Exploration sectors.

All "Damage Taken" and "Damage Dealt" Accolades are now part of the new "Damage Accolades" category.

Above and Beyond: The "sub-objective" text no longer shows after completing the Accolade.

Hitman and Syndicate Boss: These Accolades no longer give each other’s titles, and now properly give their own.

Invoker of Subspace Instability: This Accolade now properly refers to a "passive skill" instead of a "power."

Making the Rounds: This Accolade can now be completed in the mission, Hunting the Hunters.

Trace Tracker: The description has been clarified, and a counter has been added.

New Accolades have been added for certain milestones in Devidian and Terran Empire defeats. New icons have been added to these Accolades.

Trophies have been added for defeating Dominion, Undine, and Federation NPCs on ground maps.

Several typos have been fixed, along with some general text clean-up on some missions.

The cooldown on taking a Secondary Mission (One you’ve completed already, or do not qualify for) has been lowered to 30 minutes. This cooldown is only for doing the same mission twice; you can still pick up multiple Secondary Missions if they’re separate.

The following missions now have proper categories in the Mission Journal: Neutral Zone Diplomacy, Patrol the Dera System, Toron System Patrol, Trick or Treat, Viral Videos

Medical and Engineering Officers have been added to K-7 and Ganalda for your injury and repair needs.

The Exchange sign next to a non-functioning Turbolift in ESD has been removed.

The position of NPCs in some ships has been updated, so they should no longer be sitting or standing in incorrect places.

The Mylasa System in the Mylasa Sector is now properly named Mylasa System (as opposed to Mylasa Sector, which would be almost as maddeningly recursive as this patch note).

Vendor System is no longer incorrectly called Vendor Sector on the sector map.

Research (Crafting)

There are now 528 craftable items via Research (an addition of 408 items in this update)

Previous crafting experience in standard and advanced Energy Field, Physical Science, and Tech R&D has been merged into General Research up to a maximum of 1500 skill. See the full details at the top of the notes for more info.

KDF can also capture anomalies by raiding facilities or freighters in new special patrol missions.

KDF turn in their anomalies to the new crafting station, located in the hallway just outside the shipyards on Qo’noS.

KDF crafting trees provide access to the same advancement possibilities as Federation crafting, although Klingons will tend to gain access to upgraded disruptors instead of phasers and have the unique option to craft Bat’leth melee weapons.

All Anomaly Data Samples have had their stack limits increased to 250, including Rare Particle Samples.

The info text on all Anomaly Samples has been updated to indicate which tier of items they are primarily used in.

The Memory Alpha crafting tutorial mission now uses a practice schematic and rewards a low-level schematic.

UI

The Remote Contacts (Hail) UI has undergone a major update. You may now open it via the Mission Journal (J key by default) or the Hail button on the mini-map. In preparation of the Foundry, a new tab for Community Authored Content can be chosen on the left tab. You will now see each individual mission offered to you, sorted by the name of the mission offering contact. You may switch to the Info tab for persistent reminders from certain contacts. You may turn in missions from the In Progress tab.

Sprint and Roll cool-downs now look different in the UI.

The Interaction progress bar has a maximum width; no more stretching across a widescreen monitor!

Buttons on the Interact bar now have a consistent width.

The "Click to Select" text on the Interact bar has been centered.

The Interact bar no longer shows when selecting an Away Team.

Tooltips in the Tailor / Ship Editor now use a standard delay.

Dropdown menus in the Tailor / Ship Editor have been widened slightly.

Trails no longer display in the Ship Editor.

The Tailor no longer visually stretches your character a little horizontally.

The Crafting UI can now be resized larger than its default size.

The Crafting UI no longer counts items in the Recycle Bin as valid for crafting.

Several Star Trek Online loading screens have been updated.

The "X" button in the upper-right of the Away Team selector now closes the window.

The "Exit Game" button now pops up a confirmation dialogue from the Login screen.

The ESC key properly closes the Assets Tab of the Inventory.

The Social Media menu item has been removed.

Ship name and location are now limited to displaying 20 characters in the Character Select screen. This fixes an issue where the ship name and location can extend out of the lower-right window.

Fixed an issue incorrectly preventing certain Uniform combinations from being set up in the Tailor.

Fixed a potential Tailor issue where certain textures would not apply.

Currency types no longer overlap items in stores where multiple currencies are accepted.

If an item reward from a mission is marked as Unique, there will be explanatory text in the tooltip.

Item reward text in the Mission Reward window now changes color when you hover your mouse cursor over it.

Clicking on any reward in the Mission Return screen will select that reward, as opposed to having to click on the radio button next to it.

The button that allows you to take rewards is now grayed out if you haven’t selected any items.

Fixed an issue where checkboxes in the Privacy Settings UI sometimes wouldn’t display the correct value.

Certain Bind on Equip items purchased through vendors no longer bind when bought. They are now properly marked as Bind on Pickup.

When you view the Info on a ship, it will now display a thumbnail image of the selected ship.

The "Show Enemy Health" selection in the HUD Options UI no longer has an untranslated message.

The name of a player’s Fleet always displays by the name in the HUD (e.g. Over the player’s head or over the ship in space).

Mission-specific progress bars no longer overlap the name of ships, NPCs, or objects.

Collapsing and expanding the Dabo window now has a smoother transition.

Contacts with multiple options now show a unique icon on the map and mini-map.

Hovering your cursor over a "grip point" now correctly changes the cursor to a Resize or Move cursor.

Map-specific missions now properly display as "Failed" if they have indeed been failed.

Fixed a bug preventing Injuries or Ship Damage from being healed twice in a row.

The outline that displays when you have some objects selected has been improved.

Targeting reticules are now more consistent in size.

A more helpful error message now displays when attempting to purchase something from the C-Store while your inventory is full, and various other states that may cause the transaction to fail.

In stores with multiple categories, you may now select from these categories from the left sidebar, while Buy, Sell, and Buyback compose the top bar.

The slider bar on Holds, Disables, etc. has been removed.

New loading screens have been added.

You may now remove the Level Bar from your UI.

You may now resize the Interact UI via the F12 "Rearrange" menu.

There have been general UI tweaks, improvements, and optimization.

PvP

Teams are once again auto-balanced in PvP maps.

Players may now choose to ignore PvP invitations.

When healing Shields in PvP, the healer now gets the credit instead of the one being healed.

Fixed an issue where the number of points required to win in a given Challenge match was unnecessarily duplicated in the UI.

Fixed an issue where all players in the Challenge lobby showed up as Lieutenants.

Fixed an issue where the target score wouldn’t show that it changed when changing maps in the Challenge queue.

On Shanty Town (PvP), if a player has the virus, a buff will display showing the amount of time it will remain. The visual effect while carrying the virus has also been updated and the map has been cleared of floating objects.

When queuing for PvP from the Neutral Zone and the Omega Leonis Sector, a floating message pops across the screen to confirm that you’ve entered the PvP queue.

Assimilation (PvP): There is no longer a floating object on the Klingon version.

Vendor Organizational Updates

As part of the Season 3 release, you’ll find that many stores have been merged and combined into a single contact to help with vendor clutter and provide one-stop shopping for busy captains.

Here’s a detailed list of the store changes:

The vendors in Qo’noS have been updated to be more organized and much easier to browse!

Lt. B’Eora – Basic Ground Equipment Vendor

Sells Away Team weapons, Away Team equipment, kits, and consumables for Energy Credits.

In the southwest corner of the southeast room of the Great Hall of Qo’noS.